Ken Burns’s War, The Sacramento Homefront
Ken Burns’s latest epic-length documentary addresses World War II and its effect on 4 American towns - Sacramento among them. The series profiles, reportedly with great accomplishment, the war’s impact on those who fought and those who waited at home. The 15 hour, 7 part series debuts on Sunday evening on KVIE. World War II veterans are dying at a rate of 1000 every day. That’s living history, falling away, leaving us adrift without its influence. Whatever we can do to hold on, perhaps we’ll be better off in the future knowing their past. And it has that Sacramento focus.
A little bit…I watched the first episode and it talked a little bit about the communities but then shifted to the battelfront. While the information was good and worthwhile, it was a lot less of the home-front emphasis I was expecting. Unfortunately I didn’t realize it would be every night, so I missed the ones later on this week–hopefully I can catch them in re-run or On Demand or something–so maybe they talked more about that stuff later on.